New Blog Location

This is just a quick post to say that I have transferred this blog to a new location! It's now on madeleinehagan.com and the blog name has changed to The Salt Compass. I will post there now instead of here.

It will be the same type of posts, topics, and random ramblings that I have usually posted here. I've even added some of my older posts from this one to that one, as well as a new one this morning. Check it out if you haven't already!

Thanks,
Madeleine

Writing in Coffee Shops

I'm going to write a coffee shop tourist post today because I haven't written one of those in a while. This photo was taken in a new Costa location by Portsmouth and Southsea station. It's closer to my Tuesday morning lecture than the ones on Commercial Road, and I personally identify with Gilmore Girls at that time in the morning. Going to a coffee shop on a consistent basis for my lunch break in desperate need of coffee being the similarity I'm referring to.

I've gone consistently on Tuesdays for a few weeks now and I must say I'm a fan of the completely glass walls. I can see everyone walking by and if it's raining the raindrops stick to the glass and it actually makes me want to write.

Now this isn't to say that I write every time I'm there. Sometimes I get distracted by cute bags that look like they're from Accessorize and I have to resist the want to go shop. Other times someone will be walking by with their dog and

When You Don't Know What To Write

If I am going to be perfectly honest I'd have to say that I drafted this blog post during one of my lectures this afternoon. Yes, I know I should have been taking notes, but it at least looked like I was. I sit towards the back and text my sister back in America or doodle song lyrics in my notebook. Don't worry I can still give a general outline of the lecture. But today I chose to spend the two-hour slot drafting a post on What To Do When You Don't Know What To Write (really long title I know so I shortened it later). I've been searching for ideas to use for my projects due in a few months time and not being able to think of any. I don't know where to start. I guess I just keep thinking that something will hit me, but it never does, which is incredibly frustrating when you're in the mood to write something. So I thought what's stopping me from writing anyway? I pulled out my notebook in that lecture and started putting anything and everything onto the page.

Chocolate

So I might have a slight notebook addiction. I guess this could be assumed since I’m doing a Creative Writing degree, but I’m in my second year and I still haven’t taken my laptop to a lecture or seminar once. I always handwrite everything in a notebook first. I just really like the motion of writing everything by hand. Clicking away on a keyboard is fun and all but doesn’t compare to thick ink on fresh paper. 

Writing in that way is slower of course though and often distracting if I like the notebook too much. I like to leaf through the remaining blank pages and fold the covers

On A Rainy Morning...

(Not my image.)

It’s one of those rainy days. The good ones. Like the ones when I was younger where I would stay in my room and find my copy of Inkheart by Cornelia Funke to read for hours and hours. I’m not sure why, but it was always my rainy day go-to book. I think it was because of the way the book starts in the first chapter. With the rain on the window. I love it.

Today is a day much like so many of those were. But I’ve decided to write it down before I pick up my book again. Through raindrop speckled windows the street is a blurry watercolour and the grass a mossy green.

A Few Writing Tips: 1, 2, & 3

While I definitely don't have a step by step process for this writing business, I do know that certain things definitely help and I don't mind sharing.

1. Be comfortable.

Try to get to a favourite place or maybe bring something that helps you relax. For me, it's wrapping a blanket around me until I'm a burrito and having a hot cup of coffee or tea nearby. This will make me not want to get up any time soon, giving me the chance to write more.

The Advice Every Writer Gets

 

Over and over again I have seen a common piece of advice often given to beginning writers. WRITE. You'd think this would be obvious. Isn't that why writers are called writers? Because they write? *gasp* What a breakthrough.

The people/authors/writers that say this though usually elaborate a bit saying: Write every day. At first I took that to be kind of extreme advice. How on earth would I manage to write a finished piece (poem, chapter, short story, etc.) every single day? It seemed at best unrealistic.

Completely Okay With That

(Not my image.)

I am a perfectionist.

This is not something I have only recently discovered or anything, I just thought I'd set up with that. (Plus I think that admitting things every once in a while in writing is somewhat healthy, but that is beside the point today.) Naturally, it affects pretty much every aspect of my life, my writing especially.

Since I'm aware of this, I usually try to write all my first drafts by hand in a notebook. I can't edit as much which

Coffee & the Thoughts

So today I'm just thinking out loud. I might consider this "being a writer" topic a little bit but I guess I'll talk about coffee shops first and then bring in the "writer" aspect second.

First, it kind of goes without saying that I am a fan of coffee, so the fact that there seems to be a coffee shop on the corner of every other street that I pass is not something I'm going to complain about. I haven't been in too many yet, but the few I've visited have no shortage of character. Some are always full of people who stand in lines that wind around wooden tables and there's the thick hot scent of coffee and machines constantly buzzing behind the counter.